First Weekend Down in The Secret World

I’ve been pretty quiet on this game for a number of reasons but with my pre-order and my GM pack order finally going through I was all primed and ready for the head start weekend. Until that is I realized I had deleted the game in my last massive hard-drive clean-up – so I spent the better part of Friday watching the patcher do its magic. I’ve also had some performance issues with TSW so I was really hoping the live client and the various testing changes would result in a smoother gameplay for me. I was more or less pleased, although I’ll get to that later.

I haven’t made it all that far, but I’ve done more so far then I managed to do during any of the open or closed beta events. Part of that was intentional as I really wanted to keep the game fresh and not spoil too much of it, but also as you all know I really haven’t been gaming too much.

So far in game I’m mainly just messing around, taking it slow, and enjoying the setting. I rolled over on the Huldra “server” at the recommendation of @MyLOTROGamer but I was VERY happy when I realized there’s really only one server for PvE content. The PvP persistent warzones are split up based on the “servers” but that’s primarily as there’s a size cap on them and they wanted everyone to have a chance to enjoy them. No more worries about what server your friends are on or being on a “slow” server, which was exactly what I was hoping Funcom would do. I’ve settled into a spec using Blades and Pistols not from a functionality choice but I just think they look cooler. A combination of ranged (although pistols are mid-range weapons) and melee seems to work out really well as I get some nice damage, buffing, healing and AoEs from that combination.

While there are parts of this that are “traditional MMO” there are a couple key things that have really stuck out to me. With the modern setting, I LOVE the quest turn-in process as you essentially email your status and get the loot automagically. This by far can be one of the most annoying MMO processes and I really like the way Funcom addressed this technically and aesthetically.

The other big aspect that smacks you pretty early is the diversity of the quests and the challenges they pose. There are some “kill 10 rats” quests but so far it has been just phase one of a mission that builds up to something else. And to be honest, kill quests don’t bug me as long as everything isn’t a kill quest I’ve also already run into 2 quests that I’ll admit I googled, which while sad to admit (they really weren’t that hard) means that I need to play this game differently then other MMOS, which is a VERY good thing. I’m sure you can very successfully play this game without reading or paying attention, but there’s so much depth and intrigue built in that I’m going to want to pay more attention to make sure I don’t miss out on things.

Circling back to my performance issues, they seem sporadic and almost cyclical so I’m thinking possibly some background process that I haven’t squashed might be causing the issue. But for the most part, I can just sit in the corner for a few seconds and it will pass so it isn’t a deal breaker. However, I was quite frustrated that one quest (Horror Show) more or less requires you to play on at least medium settings. That was the second quest I googled and once you can actually see stuff it becomes quite clear.

Like I said up front, I haven’t played too much but so far I’m very impressed with things. I’ll be curious to see how the server does tomorrow (official launch) but so far things seem to have gone pretty well for Funcom. The next couple of things I’m working on are:

Seeing if I can find some better cosmetic options

Try to figure out crafting a bit

Find somewhere to store my crap

I know lots of folks are playing TSW, what are your impressions so far?

This game has completely surprised me. Three weeks ago it was barely on my radar. One week ago I pre-ordered. After playing most of this weekend I can honestly say it’s one of the best MMOs I’ve played (and I’ve played a lot of them).

It’s rough in places, but there is so much that makes up for that. The writing and dialogue is some of the best I’ve ever encountered in a game, the setting and lore are amazing, the questing is by far the best I’ve ever played. That’s before I get into the ability and skill system. Considering upgrading to a lifetime account.

I probably won’t make many friends by saying I found TSW to be way more innovative, fun, engrossing and more challenging that Guild Wars 2 (I’ve now cancelled my GW2 order).

I’ve been following this game for a while (6 months or so) but lately really tried to distance myself such that I didn’t get too excited about it. But I agree that this game has done a number of things VERY well and while it probably won’t be a smashing success I think it will actually grow in size as opposed to shrinking as more people hear about it and want to try it out. I’m willing to be that the launch of TSW will be smaller then that of Age of Conan but already this seems like a much more mature and solid product then Conan.

As for Lifetime, I had an opportunity to cancel my order of the GM pack but when it finally went through I figured I’d give Funcom a chance as even the open beta reviews and discussions have been VERY positive, even from folks who are very anti-funcom. Not to mention, the other 2 lifetime accounts I’ve purchased have been well worth the investment so I felt confident in that choice. Plus, if you look at it, they’ve already done a similar transition for AoC that LOTRO did for F2P such that I’m not terribly worried about getting screwed even if Funcom does what all the “haters” are predicting and convert over to a F2P model. However, I still believe there’s room for a well done subscription MMO that supports the game via a cosmetic cash shop.

Like I said before, after years of abysmal mmo releases finally one that delivers. A good story and no elves involved, what more do you need

Sure it is a bit of a niche mmo and numbers will be relatively low at release but once the word gets out FC can (and did) actually make a good mmo the numbers will go up. Not that it really matters as you are not bound to your ‘server’ to play with other people.

As for the future, I hope FC can keep up the pace and involvement like they did during beta and keep me entertained releasing improvements/content on a regular basis,

The ‘haters’ uhm well it is the usual lame story like we have seen with every mmo release ‘characters suck’, ‘clunky combat’ and ‘omg this will go f2p in 6 months’ /yawn.

I can go on and on but instead I choose to log back in and continue playing…

I’ve been very surprised so far by the stability of this release and with how much I’m enjoying not rushing anywhere in particular. I agree it will be interesting to see how the team builds things going forward as I think this was one of the more involved and intriguing build-ups without releasing a ton of information.

I want a good group of games that all do well and I think with the very public issues (even if they aren’t real) TOR has been having, I think the MMO world needs as many successes as possible. I don’t think TSW will be impacted all that much long-term by GW2 since they’re VERY different genres, but I could see GW2 taking a big chunk out of LOTRO and Rohan…

Sorry I’m late to the party, but great post Doc =) I’ve been burying my face so deep into this game, just this morning I was paralyzed by the sunlight. I owe you one, for introducing me to this game in the first place, so muchos gracias! I hope Huldra’s been treating you well. I mostly agree with much of what you’ve said ;

– Single server technology is pretty awesome. No more cross-server LFG hassle etc

– Quests blend traditional and modern MMO mechanics which makes playing them unique, challenging, and definitely keeping me coming back for more. ( Some investigation missions has made me pull hair out, literally. Bittersweet feeling.)

Also, this has got to be one of the smoothest MMO launches so far. Bugs and rough edges aside, TSW has got so much good going for them it’s hard to let the negatives outweigh the positives =D

On an ending note, would love to see The Secret War podcast up and running again soon, now that we’ve hit the green lights. If you ever need a guest player for opinions etc on your show, look no further, I’ll be glad to contribute Doc =) Looking forward to your next post. Cheers.

I will add you to my friends list once I get back in-game. I’ve had another slight hold-up as Gamestop seems incapable of taking my money I tried to give them 3 months ago so my account has been put on hold until my pre-order goes through.

As for the podcast, one thing at a time – first I have to actually play the games and get more involved there before I’ll start back up talking about them I will keep you in mind for sure if/when that ever happens.

I do however have 2 episodes for LOTRO kicking around that I need to polish off and get published.